Instagram is a platform where you can advertise your business to the world for free and get noticed, but how do you do this effectively? Growing your Instagram account organically can be tricky, and you might not know where to start. Thankfully, we’re great at social media here at Neon, and have all the tips and tricks to help you grow your Instagram audience in 2020! 

Engage with appropriate accounts

Posting content stuffed with hashtags may seem like the easiest way to grow your Instagram following, but in order to grow your following and build a relevant and engaged community of your own, you have to remember it’s a two-way street. Other users want you to interact with their posts just as much as you do. 

Identify the audience you want to reach out to, research their profiles and get following and engaging! Liking posts, commenting and following the relevant people will result in a percentage of them following you back. It’s a surefire way to ensure your community is made up of the correct accounts, ones that can add value and insight, and help you to grow your audience productively. 

If you have an Instagram business profile, you can view a broken-down list of your activity, through Instagram Insights. This handy tool breaks down your audience into demographics based on gender and location. It also provides insight into your engagement rate, peak times for posting, reach, impressions and interactions.

Research your hashtags and use them wisely

You’ve probably come across posts which are rife with hashtags. This is a definite no-no! These accounts are trying to grow their Instagram audience in any way possible and without much thought. That’s something you want to avoid doing. Adding loads of irrelevant or tenuous hashtags on your post without decent content to accompany it is going to come across like spam. It won’t contribute to the growth of your Instagram following, and if it does, it will attract the wrong kind of follower. 

Below is an example of how NOT to hashtag on Instagram. Just don’t do it.

If you look at the Instagram influencers with a large audience base, you will see that the hashtags they use are minimal, and stick to a theme. Other users want to see thoughtful content and posts that are relevant to the hashtags they are searching for. 

Also, don’t forget to check out the “trending” hashtags. Especially if you are posting about an event, lots of users will be searching for the same thing, so don’t miss this opportunity to tune into that potential audience base.  

Post Creative Content

Perhaps one of the most crucial rules to follow if you want to grow your Instagram audience is to ensure your content is creative. You can do everything else, but if what you’re posting isn’t engaging your followers, then you need to go back and revise your content. 

Instagram binds brilliant imagery and great content together, so you have a lot of space to play with. Keep your imagery bright and vibrant, and your content informative. 

You will notice a trend amongst successful influencers that the majority of their content is on the lengthy side. Users are following your account for a reason, and they want to read about what you are posting! Keeping things creative is a fail-safe way to grow your Instagram following organically. 

Steph Elswood is a successful Instagrammer with over 234K followers…

There are many tools out there equipped to aid you in making sure your content is creative. Social media management systems like Hootsuite and Buffer help you manage your content. Breaking down your videos, copy and images and allowing you to monitor the outcome. 

Be consistent 

Focusing on one goal and maintaining consistency with this can massively help when it comes to growing your Instagram following. What market are you trying to target with your posts? Are you a fitness, beauty or fashion influencer? Or maybe you want to be an Insta chef? Focus on one goal and stick to it. This way, the content of your posts will be more refined, easier to track, and your followers will know what to expect. 

Time it right 

The time in which you post your content can contribute to the growth of your Instagram audience! This can be tricky to analyse due to the different time zones. Instagram Insights shows the data of your posts, so you can analyse what time is best to post for your Instagram followers. 

If you are UK-based and only trying to reach a local audience, then there are certain times in which Instagram posts do better. Think of the times you are sat aimlessly swiping through Instagram. Those are the times other people are too. Posting during the daily commute to and from work, lunchtime (11 AM – 2 PM) and also in the evening are all peak times to post, and will help contribute to growing your Instagram audience.  

Conclusion

Ultimately, Instagram is a great place to promote yourself or your business. However, posting mediocre content and not having a strategic approach can be a downfall. It may take time and patience to grow your Instagram following, but success awaits! Keep up the hard work and happy posting! 

Need assistance in growing your social media? Head over to our services page to see how we can help you!